Related links

Supt Richard Spedding is leading Operation Firecrest which involves farm and business visits, meetings, attending auction marts, anti-poaching patrols and arrests across rural areas of East
Lancashire such as the Ribble Valley and Pendle.

The aim of the operation is enforcement and prevention by encouraging landowners and gamekeepers to report any theft or suspicious activity to police in order to disrupt and deter countryside
criminals.

Supt Spedding said there were an average seven rural crimes a day across Lancashire and the nature of the isolated areas made detecting such crimes more difficult.

He said: “Rural crime such as the theft of livestock, machinery and tools tends to be of a higher value.

“We cannot be everywhere and cannot fight this problem on our own.

“We need to work smarter to stop this becoming a major issue.

“These people are really well organised.

“Some of their practices are barbaric and inhumane.

“The farming community is hard working, decent and trustworthy. I don’t want to say be too cynical, but they should ring us with any reports of suspicious activity.”